


There's No Way All This Just Happened

by AverageAtBest123



Category: Sex Education (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 22:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30029037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AverageAtBest123/pseuds/AverageAtBest123
Summary: Alternate Universe fic.Doesn't really happen in any particular time period of the show so you decide for yourselves when this takes place.
Relationships: Otis Milburn/Maeve Wiley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	There's No Way All This Just Happened

**Author's Note:**

> The = signs that go across the page separate the story which I think may help understanding a little bit more. Anyway, I hope this isn't too confusing by the end.

Another lousy day had arrived. Otis did his best to wake up but his body refused to open his eyes. Instead, he was stuck in the bed dreading the day ahead. He groaned audibly, and started to roll over. He paused almost soon after because he could feel something holding onto his arm. He froze, because the thing holding him seemed to have their fingers locked into his. He was scared to open his eyes, and took a couple deep breaths before he very slowly opened his eyes. He immediately saw someone with long brown hair with her back facing him. Once he fully realised it, he screamed in a panic and ended up on the floor. A large thud rattled through the household as he landed, and caused the mysterious person to wake up and run over to him.

As he sat up with his legs out in front of him, his vision was a little blurred and he struggled to see the figure in front of him who was fast approaching from the opposite side of the bed. The person was calling him constantly, but seemingly his vision wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t optimised. Everything he heard was just muffled sound. He concentrated on the person that was stumbling their way around the bed, rushing towards him and he was confused to see that she looked quite familiar.

“Maeve?” 

Otis just stared at her, wondering what she was doing in his bed. Except she wasn’t in his bed. He looked around the room as she was calling his name, whilst he ignored her. He tried to think clearly but simply couldn’t. Everything looked different. He had no mirror next to the bed, no wardrobe, no music collection either. The bed was twice as big and the door was on the opposite side of the room, and the huge curtains protected presumably huge windows. This wasn’t his bedroom, but Maeve could never afford something like this. Where were they?

“Otis!” Maeve shouted, and Otis focused on her as best as he could. She was now crouched beside him. “Are you okay?”

“Wh…” Otis began but couldn’t finish. He was still so perplexed. Maeve looked different too. She looked a little older than she usually did, and her nose ring wasn’t present either. Her pyjamas were a purple colour, and Otis tried to decipher what was written on the front but couldn’t see clearly enough yet.

“What’s going on? You’re really worrying me.” Maeve placed one of her hands on his cheek, and Otis furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. His eyes also widened.

“You’re here?” Otis asked, unsure of what to say. He had so many questions that needed answers, but he still wasn’t thinking straight. Now he showed his surprised rather than his confusion

“Where else would I be?” Maeve was now the one looking puzzled.

“Uh… I… I don’t know.” 

“Whatever’s going on inside that head of yours you need to tell me.” Maeve looked very concerned.

“Why, what’s happening.” Otis could sense a bit of panic creeping up and he started to fidget a little.

“You’re being strange, that’s what’s happening.” Maeve did her best with her free arm to keep him still as she stroked his ear with the hand that was already on his cheek.

“Where, where…” Otis continued to look around the room, looking for anything that could re-jog his memory.

“Is this a bad one or an okay one?” Maeve asked, thinking he’d understand straight away.

“What… what are you on about?” Otis questioned, but it didn’t sound like a question at all.

“Your panic attacks? You’ve been having them for years. Not so much ever since we moved here though.” Maeve said, she was really worrying now. He seemed completely out of it. “I’m just gonna assume it’s a bad one. You’re going to be fine, I’m always here for you.”

Maeve smiled and put her other hand on his cheek to make him look at her, and her only. He needed reassurance right now, and although she didn’t know the cause of his so-called panic attack, she was going to be there to make sure he recovered. Otis didn’t quite think of that though. Instead, his mind focused on how one hand was seemingly colder than her other, and the more he concentrated, the more he realised that it was just one finger on her hand that was colder. Otis didn’t know whether he was just imagining it, or whether it was actually real but nonetheless he attempted to solve the small mystery. He was still unable to fully understand the situation he was in, and everything he could feel wasn’t what he was used to, especially the ridiculously hot room he thought he was in. Just as he was starting to figure out why that particular finger was slightly colder, Maeve kissed his forehead and pulled him closer to her for a hug. He was still sitting up which made the hug a little bit awkward, especially as she held his head close to her breasts. He squealed again as it happened and Maeve released him. He took a glance at her fingers and sure enough his suspicions were confirmed. She had a wedding ring on her finger.

“You’re married?” Otis whispered, wondering if the question was overstepping the mark.

“Duh.” Maeve said, thinking he was joking around now. When he didn’t laugh and continued to stare at her bemused she knew something was up. “Seriously, what’s going on? We’ve been married for 4 years, babe.”

“ _WE_?!” Otis yelled, so loud that even Maeve jumped a little. Also, _babe_? This wasn’t what Maeve would normally call him. What happened to ‘dickhead’ or ‘muppet?’ He looked down at his own hands, and he had the same ring as Maeve on. He couldn’t feel it at all, as if it was just a hologram on his finger, and even when he went to touch it nothing was felt. Once she settled down from the fright, Maeve began speaking again which made him look back up at her.

“Um, yes?” Maeve looked at him fidget away, looking everywhere but her. They heard a distant cry from another room in the house, and they both looked in the direction of the cry. Maeve smiled a little and stood up. She pulled Otis up off the floor and gently pushed him onto the bed so he could lie down.

“Don’t move a muscle.” Maeve stated in a half joking half serious tone. She pulled the duvet over him, and swiftly left the bedroom. However, just before she left Otis managed to read what was written on her purple pyjamas. It read ‘Mum’ on the front in a very fancy font, and Otis started to panic again. Why would she have those pyjamas?

As Maeve was sorting something out in another room, Otis sat staring at the ceiling, trying to process the last couple of minutes. He had woken up, in a bed with Maeve and apparently they had been married for 4 years? The last thing he could remember was going to sleep ready for another day of school, and somehow he was now _living_ with Maeve who wore ‘Mum’ pyjamas to bed and they both had wedding rings on their fingers, which he assumed signified their _marriage_? And did the mum thing mean she was a parent. And if she was a parent, was he a parent too? Otis breathed quicker, panicking more and more as he replayed the situation in his head, but Maeve came back not too long after he began breathing heavier. However, she wasn’t empty handed. Something small was wrapped in a blanket, and was wriggling around a little as Maeve held it. Otis couldn’t see it fully yet, but he had a pretty good idea of what it could be. It just made him panic even more.

“Couldn’t get her back to sleep, figured you could try like you normally do?” Maeve asked, a bit sceptical given the state he was in a few minutes ago. Regardless, she carefully sat on the bed next to Otis and handed him the baby. He sat very still with the baby in his arms, afraid that he’d mess up or do something that would make the baby start crying.

“Do what you’ve done in the past, that usually works.” Maeve said, looking at her baby in her husband’s arms and smiling. It always made her happy to see the two things she loved the most.

“I can’t remember what to do.” Otis said, telling the truth. He didn’t know what Maeve was basing her recollection off, but all this was completely new to him.

“That weird rocking technique that no one else can do correctly?” Maeve said, looking at him confused again. What was wrong with his memory? Or just in general at the moment. He was acting very strange in her eyes.

“Um… like this?” Otis began to rock a little, and Maeve smiled when he started to do it, hoping that he would start acting normal again. 

“Yes, yes! That’s it!” Maeve spoke quietly to try and let the baby fall asleep again, the excitement of Otis doing what he normally did was evident on her face. Otis smiled and laughed a little when he saw her so happy, but he still refused to shake off this weird feeling that he didn’t remember anything.

“Our Sophia loves you.” Maeve smiled, looking at their baby slowly drifting off back into a sleep. Otis stopped rocking less than a minute later as she had gone back to sleep.

“I think I did it.” Otis said, breaking the comfortable silence with his awkwardness. He wasn’t really sure what to say either. Maeve just looked at him like he was really strange.

“You’re so odd, you know that.” Maeve laughed, and Otis managed to chuckle a little. “I’ll go put her back.”

Maeve took Sophia back into her small bedroom, leaving Otis in the bed alone yet again. He stared straight forward now having sat up, and was still a little baffled. He now had to comprehend that he had a baby girl, Maeve was his wife, and he lived in a completely new house that he’d only seen the bedroom of. As Otis tried thinking about everything, and tried his best to remember anything Maeve re-entered the room and slipped underneath the duvet beside him.

“You’ve always been a natural at fatherhood.” Maeve faced him, trying to see what he was up to. She was still checking in case he was going to start acting weird again.

“I have?” 

“Yeah, ever since our little one was born.” Maeve got closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. She then placed one of her arms around his chest and pulled him a little closer to her. He let out a few panicky noises but nothing like the bigger ones earlier. They sat in another silence, listening to nothing but their own breathing before Otis spoke.

“Maeve, our marriage.” Otis began, and Maeve looked up at him, refusing to take her head off his shoulder. “Is it good?”

“I definitely think it is. Do you think differently?” Maeve said, beginning to panic again. Was he going to ask for a break or something? A divorce? That was the pessimist inside of her speaking, but she had swore to herself that she changed.

“I... '' Otis began, but shook his head in disbelief. He then started to whisper “This isn’t real, this isn’t happening...”

“Hey, hey. This is real.” Maeve took her head off his shoulder now, noticing his internal panic straight away, and went back to holding his face in her hands. “We’re married, we have a little girl, we love each other.”

Otis just stared at her, still denying that any of this was actually the reality. He looked down at his finger again and looked at the ring. He trusted Maeve enough to believe she was telling the truth and when he redirected his gaze to her eyes he smiled.

“I love you.” Maeve said, and brought her face closer to his.

Before he knew it, his lips had connected with Maeve’s and he was ultimately shocked at what had happened. He had taken in the information that they were married, but completely forgot that this meant they were going to kiss. He hadn't prepared for this and he backed away as soon as he felt Maeve wanting to deepen their kiss. He hit his head on the headboard relatively hard as he pulled away feistily leading to him yelping a little bit in pain.

“Shit, are you okay?” Maeve quickly released her hands from his head and placed them onto his legs instead, which helped prop her up so she could get a better look at the place on Otis head that he was already rubbing.

“I’m fine. Sorry.” Otis said, not knowing what else to do.

“You’ve been very abnormal today.” Maeve crossed her arms, starting to get a little bit fed up with this new and bizarre Otis.

“I don’t know why.” Otis replied after a short silence.

“Just relax, we’re good together remember?” 

That was the first Otis had remembered anything, and he was so happy that he could finally say that he remembered something. It may not have been the most important thing, but at least he could recognise it. He smiled again, and this time he leaned towards her. They shared another kiss, and when Maeve requested the deepening Otis granted it rather than pulling away. Otis was so lost in the moment that he started feeling things that he shouldn’t have been feeling in that moment. He felt a pain in his right arm every now and then, but he tried to ignore it as much as possible. He focused so much on kissing Maeve, that everything started to fade away.

==========================================================================================

“Wake up man!” A cheery voice bellowed, and they were very close judging by how much Otis’ ears were now tingling. He opened his eyes, expecting to still be kissing Maeve, but instead he was on a fairly uncomfortable seat with a window by the side of him. Eric was sitting next to him with a huge smile on his face. “Good morning sleeping beauty.” 

“What? Where are we?!” Otis was so pale when he spoke. He was embarrassed, confused, and desperately wanted answers.

“You didn’t get much sleep last night did you? Or did Maeve scare you so much you passed out?” Eric teased, laughing as he finished. He didn’t realise how much Otis was actually panicking.

“It’s not funny Eric where are we!”

“Chill man, we’re on the bus.” Eric looked a little puzzled now, wondering what had gotten into Otis.

“We… we never take the bus unless it’s your birthday. Eric, we never take the bus, it’s not your birthday why are we on it!”

“OTIS! Calm down, what’s going on?”

“I’m… freaking… out.” Otis said, in between an influx of heavy breaths with the occasional short one.

“We’re going to a university, the whole sixth form is here. And we’re on a coach if you want to be technical, not a bus.” Eric said, trying to get Otis to calm down. Even using the simplest of information could help.

“Everyone saw what I did?” Otis panicked more, if that was physically possible.

“What did you do?” Eric glanced at him with a scrunched face, doing his best to convey his confusion. There was a huge pause before Otis spoke again, and he was just going through everything he had encountered. As much as he wanted to make sense out of everything, he just simply couldn’t.

“Never mind.” 

“What’s your answer then?” Eric prompted, smiling at Otis from ear to ear, obviously knowing something that Otis didn’t.

“To what?” Otis asked, very bluntly. He genuinely had no clue at what Eric was on about.

“To what she said man!” Eric furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what had happened to him.

“Who? What did she say? What’s going on...” Otis felt like pulling out his hair, he was so frustrated and didn’t have the foggiest idea of what was going on anymore.

“It was me.” said another familiar voice from the seat in front of Otis.

He looked up at Maeve, who was smiling ever so faintly with her chin leaning on the seat whilst looking back at the duo behind her. He looked back at Eric and tried to speak but ended up mouthing words that didn’t make sense since nothing would come out of his mouth. Maeve eventually began the conversation again. She had become a little impatient as she hadn't got a proper response from what she said earlier.

“I just told you something and you sort of passed out.”

“Did I?” Otis looked at Eric for confirmation, and he nodded.

“I didn’t try to wake you up because it was funny seeing you drool.” Eric laughed, to which Otis and Maeve shook their heads in sync. “I only began hitting your arm when Maeve told me to wake you up.”

Otis widened his eyes at the prompt of Eric hitting his arm, remembering where he had felt pain in his before.

“So?” Maeve asked, thinking he’d remember what she told him. She didn’t want to say it again unless she absolutely had to.

“So what?” Otis stared at her, waiting for her to repeat whatever she had said. She realised he didn’t know what she was on about and she sighed as she closed her eyes, dreading the moment again. She struggled to get it out the first time but now she had to do it again.

“I might have…” Maeve began but stopped as she thought it through. She wanted to phrase this right. “I kind of… no…. I do. I do have feelings… for you.”

Maeve looked away, and bit her lip. She shook her head again as Otis didn’t say anything straight away knowing this was a mistake. When he continued to stay silent, she looked over at him again in case he had managed to pass out once more. He was still very much wide awake though.

“You do?” Otis smiled, and his heart had started racing.

“Yeah.” Maeve said, very quietly, but enough for Otis to hear - and Eric too. He let out an excited squeal, almost the same as the one he gave when Maeve told Otis earlier too. That was as Otis had already gone to sleep in shock of course.

“So do I.”

Maeve’s eyes widened a little, surprised at what had just come out of his mouth. Was he being serious?

“Really?” Maeve let slip, very shocked.

“Really.” Otis repeated, calmly and with a large smile on his face, which ignited Maeve’s infectious smile. They both laughed quietly before Maeve did her best to lean over the seat. She had her knees on her seat, her hands on the top of the seat for support and the rest of her upper body was invading Otis’ personal space. Not that he minded of course, as he was now kissing her in reality. It wasn’t spectacular by any means, the position they were in made sure of that, but it was still perfect for them both because they were kissing the person they loved, even if they were unaware of that at this point.

As they pulled away, Maeve moved to the more comfortable position that she was previously in with her chin resting on the seat. This time, she had an even bigger smile on her face, and she was actually giggling. Maeve Wiley giggling? What had Otis done to her. They continued to stare at each other with love evident in their eyes. Eric was internally screaming with happiness, and funnily enough he had the biggest smile out of all three of them.

All of a sudden, Aimee popped up from the seat beside Maeve and looked over at the two boys sitting behind them.

“I think I get credit for you two being a couple.” Aimee said, wearing a proud smile.

“How so?” Otis asked, a little bewildered.

“I told Maeve to tell you how she felt, and now look at you both. Inseparable.” Aimee teased,

“Aimes, we’ve just had one kiss.” Maeve rolled her eyes but was still smiling intensely.

“You gotta start somewhere.” Aimee winked at Otis before settling back down into her seat, to which Otis just laughed and looked away, blushing a little bit.

“Shall we hang out later?” Maeve asked, clearly wanting to change the subject a little bit. 

“Yeah, yes, definitely. I’d love to.” Otis said, suddenly feeling very awkward.

“Okay.” Maeve’s tone was quiet, and she continued to smile at Otis for a little while longer before finally dropping down into her seat. The last of the students boarded the coach and it began to move away soon after.

Otis stared outside the window with a smile on his face. He could kind of see Maeve’s reflection from the glass and would notice her facial expressions changing frequently. They were always happy expressions in any shape or form, and it meant that world to him that that’s what she was feeling right now, especially because he knew part of the reason for her happiness was them indirectly and implicitly becoming a thing. However, one thing he couldn’t put his finger on was what he had seen that day. He had passed out and had this incredible dream. Or was it a dream? Perhaps it was a vision, and that’s what their future was actually like. He wasn’t sure which one it was, but he was going to try his hardest to make it work with Maeve and maybe he’ll get to find out which one it was. During the journey, he kept repeating the same thing in his head whenever he thought of Maeve and whatever it was he remembered about earlier.

_There’s no way all this just happened._

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to get this idea over and done with, I'll be focusing on my other fic now but the updates may be getting slower over the next few weeks.


End file.
